American Airlines recently announced that it will resume flights between Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) and Narita International Airport (NRT) in Tokyo in March 2027. While an interesting enough development in isolation, it is also indicative on a wider scale of its rivalry with United Airlines at O’Hare, as it tries to bridge the gap in long-haul routes.
United defines long-haul routes as those with a distance of at least 3,000 miles (4,828 km). As such, this will be the metric used to compare its long-haul offering with American at ORD (excluding lengthy domestic hops to Hawaii) in this analysis.
Going Long: American Adds Chicago-Tokyo Flights
American started this month in style, confirming that it would restart nonstop flights between Chicago and Tokyo on March 27. This coincides with the start of the IATA Summer Schedule, which is a time when many major route changes are made. The airline plans to operate the Boeing 787-9 on this route daily year-round, with onward connections available via its oneworld partner, Japan Airlines (JAL).
The new route will see it compete directly with United, which already operates nonstop service from O’Hare to Haneda Airport (HND). However, this alone will not be enough to bridge the intercontinental capacity gap between the pair in Chicago, with Cirium data indicating that American has scheduled only 2,303 long-haul flights from ORD this year, compared to United’s 6,152. Still, CEO Robert Isom remains optimistic about the new route’s prospects.
“This new service is a testament to our continued commitment to making our hub stronger, broadening choices for customers, and keeping Chicago competitive on the world stage.”
United Airlines’ Current Long-Haul Offering From Chicago
Looking more specifically at July 2026, United’s long-haul international offering out of ORD consists of 589 flights and 150,474 seats, accommodating an average of 255.5 guests per service. These flights will also collectively offer a grand total of 677,587,243 available seat miles.
However, the two notable exceptions to this trend underline United’s long-haul dominance at O’Hare compared to American, whose long-haul offering currently features only European routes. As previously mentioned, the first of these non-European corridors serves Tokyo Haneda daily, while São Paulo/Guarulhos International Airport (GRU) in Brazil also receives daily United flights from Chicago.
The majority of United’s European routes from O’Hare also operate daily. Indeed, Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Brussels, Dublin, Edinburgh, Milan, Munich, Paris, Rome, Shannon, and Zürich all see such services. Elsewhere, Frankfurt has two daily flights, while London Heathrow has three.
These two carriers continue to jostle for market share.
American’s long-haul network at ORD, on the other hand, is limited to a smaller handful of European routes this July. As such, the forthcoming introduction of the daily service to Tokyo Narita will go a long way in diversifying its intercontinental offering in the Windy City. This month, the carrier has scheduled 310 long-haul flights from O’Hare, offering 75,051 seats at an average of 242.1 per service.
There is considerable overlap with United’s network, showing that American isn’t afraid to go toe-to-toe with its main rival. Indeed, its July offering also features thrice-daily flights to London Heathrow and daily services to Athens, Barcelona, Dublin, Paris, and Rome. However, it also serves two European destinations that United does not: Madrid-Barajas Airport (MAD) and Naples, Italy. It will be interesting to see if American adds more routes in the future to further close the gap.
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